The embodiments described herein are generally related to closure or tightening systems, devices, and methods related to footwear. The embodiments are specifically related to closure or tightening systems and devices that may be retrofit to existing footwear, and methods of retrofitting existing footwear with a closure or tightening system or device.
Footwear commonly includes a closure or tightening system or device. For example, footwear commonly includes shoelace that is threaded through eyelets of the shoe and tensioned to tighten the shoe about the foot. Shoelace may be inconvenient for a user since its use requires the user to tension the shoelace and tie a knot. The knot may come undone after a period of time and/or as a result of the user participating in certain activities, such as hiking, running, sporting events, and the like. The tightness of the shoe is often compromised as the shoelace's knot is undone, which may impede the performance of the user in an activity and/or require the user to re-tension and retie the shoelace.
Some footwear may include other non-shoelace closure systems or devices that alleviate some of the problems associated with shoelace. For example, footwear may include a pull-cord system where a tensioning component is coupled with the shoe and with a stop or crimp-type component. The tensioning component may be tensioned, such as by pulling on an end of the tensioning component, and the stop or crimp-type component engaged with the tensioning component to maintain a set tension of the tensioning component. Other footwear may include a reel based mechanism that includes a knob that is rotated by a user. The knob is typically coupled with a spool that includes a channel around which a lace is wound as the knob is rotated by the user. The reel based mechanism may include teeth that engage, or another ratchet type mechanism, that prevent counter-rotation of the spool and/or knob.
The footwear that include these non-shoelace closure systems are often designed and/or specifically configured with the systems. As such, footwear that currently includes shoelace are often not able to use non-shoelace type closure systems. In some instances, a non-shoelace type closure system may be attached to footwear that is originally constructed for tightening via shoelace, but in such instances the footwear is typically physically altered in some way so that attaching the non-shoelace type closure system significantly damages the footwear or otherwise results in significant visible or other evidence of the attachment.